Recent reviews by Starborn

Banger musical number

Down gang btw

I absolutely adore this game. I played the flash version so I was hyped when I heard about the remake. With that said, I can't recommend this game. It feels like the best worst game I've ever played. Much of this review, such as the points about fantastic music and art and the clunky mechanics, echoes other negative reviews so I won't go into much detail there.

The Good (great, even)
-Sound and music. Whether lighthearted, cheery, wacky, intense, creepy, or somber, the music and sound fx do a great job setting the atmosphere.
-Visual design, both characters and the world. I'm a huge fan of the pixel art style. The enemy design is reminiscent of Cave Story, one of my favorite games.
-Cute characters with endearing and/or funny dialogue. The various antagonists don't do bad stuff just for kicks.
-World building. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on, like the idea of humanity getting back on their feet and rebuilding after a calamitous war and the existence of a faction that controls the progression of tech so such a war doesn't happen again.

The Bad
-Clunky controls, making for awkward/frustrating combat and movement. You have to come to a full stop to charge your heavy attack or to make a ranged attack.
-Getting knocked around every time you stub your toe. Incredibly painful when trying to do platforming while turrets are shooting or enemies are jumping at you, and the aforementioned clunky controls mean you can't jump while shooting your crossbow or slingshot at enemies, compounding the issue.
-MASSIVELY disappointing ending. The intro of the game tells you about the Phoenix, a powerful weapon which ended the Great War long ago. To save your world again, this time from a hostile alien force, you seek out the Phoenix with help from a friendly alien faction. You learn more about the Phoenix Project over the course of the game, and there is foreshadowing that some people, such as the protag Gale, have inherited Phoenix powers, making them unusually strong, and it is thusly revealed that the Phoenix isn't a singular weapon, but that there are many Phoenixes, and they are basically superpowered humans. So imagine my surprise when I fought the final final boss and lost to it, and it turned out to be optional because one of the Phoenixes is successfully woken up and saves Gale's butt, which feels like such a slap in the face since Gale is a Phoenix too and didn't need any help fighting to get this far even without awakening (haha) to her true powers. And then in the end credits scene we see her flying around like superman. It seems like a huge missed opportunity to not have her to awaken to her Phoenix powers and beat the snot out of the final boss to give us a taste of what a true Phoenix is capable of. And we never even found Gale's kidnapped family/friends/neighbors which is just, why??? It feels like Gale's original goal was completely forgotten in place of a lame save-the-world-from-an-alien-invasion plot.
-A nitpick: The first time you encounter one of the decrepit robots in the flash version it's downright terrifying, but in Awakening it feels underwhelming, and I can't really put my finger on why.

This was clearly a passion project. I'd be proud of myself if I made a game like this, but it unfortunately drops the ball hard in a lot of places that matter most.

Fun to play, but the monetization and progression system (there isn't one) needs a ton of work. It just sucks hard that you have to pay up to get any more cards or to play any modes with prizes. They tried to go the Magic: the Gathering route, but it just doesn't feel right in a digital game. Go play Magic Arena instead if you feel the need to play something more complicated than Hearthstone.

These controls are more responsive than my dead dog.

Bought the game, played it for 5 straight hours. 10/10